Manulife decides on next CEO, president
Investment chief Guloien tops Hancock's DesPrez
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Manulife Financial Corp. yesterday selected its top investment officer, Donald Guloien, over the chief of its John Hancock Boston subsidiary, John DesPrez III, to become the next president and chief executive of the giant Canadian insurance company.
Guloien and DesPrez, both 51, were in a two-executive race to succeed Dominic D'Alessandro, who will retire as Manulife's chief executive on May 7. Both are longtime Manulife executives.
DesPrez still gets a promotion. He will become chief operating officer of the company in May, its second-highest executive. He currently serves as senior executive vice president of Manulife and chief executive of its John Hancock Financial Services subsidiary.
DesPrez will continue to run John Hancock from Boston after his promotion at the parent company. As chief operating officer, he will also be responsible for insurance and wealth-management operations in Canada, the United States, Asia, and Japan.
"John has an 18-year history with Manulife and is a superb executive who has led our business in Canada and the US through a period of outstanding growth," said Manulife chairman Arthur Sawchuk.
D'Alessandro revealed his intention to retire earlier this year. He helped Manulife expanded dramatically through acquisitions, none bigger than its $13.9 billion purchase of John Hancock in 2004. At the time, it was the largest foreign acquisition by a Canadian company.
DesPrez moved to Hancock after the acquisition as head of its wealth-management business and became chief executive in 2005.
Income from Manulife's US insurance business grew from $508 million in 2005 to $718 million last year.
Wealth-management earnings doubled to $1 billion over the same period.
Guloien joined Manulife in 1981 as a research analyst and headed the company's mergers and acquisitions group from 1994 to 2001. He became Manulife's chief investment officer in 2001, overseeing more than $250 billion in assets for the company and clients.
Steven Syre can be reached at syre@globe.com.
